Feb 22nd, 2000
By Max Wadsworth
It's been 10 years since England last beat a South American country on home
soil. That was when Gary Lineker scored their 1-0 winner against Brazil at
Wembley in March 1990. South American countries are unbeaten in their last
7 visits to England.
They are: Uruguay (won 2-1), Argentina (drew 2-2), Brazil (drew 1-1), Uruguay (drew 0-0), Brazil (won 3-1), Colombia (drew 0-0)
and Chile (won 2-0).
Sky Sports
Played 10
The last meeting was of course in the second round of France '98 in St Etienne.
Argentina took the lead in the 6th minute with a Gabriel Batistuta penalty.
England equalised four minutes later with a Shearer penalty after Owen was
fouled in the box. Six minutes later England went 2-1 up with that great solo
goal from Michael Owen.
Zanetti equalised on the stroke of half-time. Two minutes into the second half Beckham was sent off for tripping Diego Simeone.
Reduced to 10 men for the remaining 73 minutes, including extra-time, England
held on for a penalty shoot-out. Shearer, Merson and Owen scored for England -
Ince's and Batty's were saved. Berti, Veron, Gallardo and Ayala scored for
Argentina - Crespo's was saved. Argentina won 4-3.
Argentina are unbeaten in the last 3 meetings, and have lost only 1 of the last
6 meetings.
Included in that unbeaten in run is their meeting in the 1986 World Cup
quarter-final in Mexico City. Argentina won 2-1 courtesy of two goals
from Maradona - the 'Hand of God' goal and a brilliant solo effort. Gary
Lineker became the tournament's top scorer, scoring his sixth goal.
4 of the last 6 meetings have been drawn after normal time.
15 goals have been scored in the last 4 meetings.
6 of the 10 meetings have been friendlies. The other four have been in the
World Cup finals (1962, 1966, 1986 and 1998).
England won 4
Argentina won 3
Drawn 3
Twice World Cup winners (1978 & 1986). Twice runners-up (1930 & 1990).
Their qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup begin next month with a home game
against Chile.
In all, they play 18 qualifiers - home and away against Paraguay, Ecuador,
Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil and Uruguay.
They play eight qualifiers before England play one.
March 28 Chile (h)
The last time we saw them was in the 1999 Copa America, where they lost 2-1
to Brazil in the quarter-finals.
Since then they have played four friendlies. They beat Brazil 2-0 in Buenos
Aires on September 4, 1999, then lost 4-2 to them in Brazil three days later.
In October they beat Colombia 2-0 at home. Their last game was in Spain in
November. They won 2-0 with goals from Pochettino and Gonzalez.
They have lost only 2 of their last 12 internationals against European
countries, winning 7 in that time. The two defeats were against Israel in a
friendly in April 1998 and against Holland in the quarter-final of France '98.
Since the 1998 World Cup they have almost fielded two sides - those based in
Europe are the first choices, but the home based players have also been given
local internationals.
Their latest FIFA ranking is 6th.
April 25 Venezuela (a)
June 3 Bolivia (h)
June 28 Colombia (a)
July 18 Ecuador (h)
July 25 Brazil (a)
August 15 Paraguay (h)
Sept 2 Peru (a)
Head to head in England
Played 5
All five meetings have been played at Wembley.
The last meeting here was in a friendly back in May 1991. It finished 2-2, with
Lineker and Platt netting for England.
The meeting before last was in May 1980. England won 3-1 with two goals from
David Johnson and one from Keegan. Maradona played as a 19-year-old.
They met at Wembley in the 1966 World Cup quarter-final. England won 1-0, with
Geoff Hurst scoring the winner. Argentina's captain, Rattin, was sent off.
The first ever meeting between the two countries was in a friendly at Wembley
in May 1951. England won 2-1 with goals from Jackie Milburn and Stan Mortensen.
England won 3
Argentina won 0
Drawn 2
They of course qualified for Euro 2000 by beating Scotland 2-1 on aggregate in
the play-offs.
The finished second in their qualifying Group table, finishing ahead of Poland
as they had a better record against them.
Final Group 5 table
P W D L F A Pts
Sweden 8 7 1 0 10 1 22
England 8 3 4 1 14 4 13
Poland 8 4 1 3 12 8 13
Bulgaria 8 2 2 4 6 8 8
Luxembourg 8 0 0 8 2 23 0
The defeat against Scotland at Wembley in November was Keegan's first defeat as head coach (in his 9th game in charge).
They have won only 3 (v Luxembourg, Belgium and Scotland) of their last 8 games, with 4 draws and 1 defeat (to Scotland).
From and including the penalty shoot-out defeat to Argentina in France '98, they have won only 6 of their 15 matches. Two of those wins were against the part-timers of Luxembourg.
They have conceded only 5 goals in Keegan's 9 games in charge, keeping 4 clean sheets. They have yet to concede more than one goal in a game under him.
They have lost only 3 of their last 16 games on English soil, winning 10 in that time.
They have won only 4 of their last 10 friendlies. They won their last one - 2-1 against Belgium at the Stadium of Light in October 1999.
Their latest FIFA ranking is 11th. They were as high as 4th in December 1997.
In the game in Poland in September 1999, Batty became the fourth England player to be sent off in a 12-game period. The others were Beckham (v Argentina), Ince (v Sweden) and Scholes (v Sweden). Before this run, only four players had been sent off ever.